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Hamilton County Commissioner race too close to call. Pillich and Reece locked in tight fight.

Alicia Reece, left, Connie Pillich and Kelli Prather will face each other in the 2020 Democratic primary for Hamilton County commissioner.(Photo: Provided)

The Democratic primary for the chance to succeed the late Todd Portune on the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners was too close to call early Wednesday morning.

Former Cincinnati vice mayor and former state Rep. Alicia Reece leads former state Rep. Connie Pillich by a mere 1,851 votes out of more than 70,000 cast. Community activist Kelli Prather received 6,700 votes.

The results are not final. About 18,000 ballots requested remain out there. Some of them either weren't sent or remain in transit in the mail. About 4,000 of them are provisional ballots that must be opened and approved. This race will be decided in the coming weeks when the remaining votes are counted.

The next commissioner will play a big role in the future of the Bengals and Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengal's lease with the county expires in 2026. Negotiations for a new lease and improvements to the stadium will begin in earnest in 2024, toward the end of the next commissioner's term.

Reece and Pillich both want to eliminate the 0.5% sales tax that paid for the stadium.

It is a race for an open seat previously held by Portune, who died Jan. 25 from cancer. Portune's former chief of staff, Victoria Parks, is filling out the remainder of his term this year.

Since Portune announced his retirement last fall, interest has swirled over who would replace him. After all, Portune's 27-year career as an elected official was one of the longest in local history for a Democrat.

Pillich had the backing of Portune and current county commissioners Victoria Parks and Denise Driehaus.

That split epitomizes the relationship between the county and city government in recent years. They've sparred over riverfront development, the stadiums and management of the Metropolitan Sewer District. They're currently battling that last one in federal court.

Reece was raised in the local political scene.

Her father, Steve Reece, made a name for himself in multiple professions. Entrepreneur, politician, mason, radio host, boxing promoter and adjunct professor were just some of his titles listed in a 2005 profile in The Enquirer.

He worked as chief of staff for former Cincinnati Mayor Theodore M. Berry and adviser to Rev. Jesse Jackson during his presidential campaigns.

It didn't take long for Alicia Reece to follow in her father's footsteps.

Reece has worked in the family's marketing firm and as a radio producer.

In 1999, at the age of 28, she became the youngest woman ever elected to Cincinnati City Council.

She won re-election to city council twice more before she decided to run for Cincinnati mayor in 2005. She finished fourth in a seven-candidate mayoral field.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland hired her as an assistant director of travel and tourism, where she remained before being appointed to the state House to replace Tyrone Yates, who left to become a judge. She then won re-election to the seat later that year and four subsequent times before she was term-limited in 2018.

If Pillich wins, this would be her first electoral victory since she left the Ohio House of Representatives in 2014 after serving five years.

Among Hamilton County Democrats, Pillich, an Air Force veteran and lawyer, gained a reputation as a tenacious campaigner, winning re-election to her House seat even after the Republican-controlled legislature in 2011 redrew the boundaries to make the district more conservative.

Pillich has had ambitions beyond Hamilton County, running statewide twice. She ran for Ohio treasurer in 2014 after leaving the Ohio General Assembly. While she lost to Josh Mandel by 13 percentage points, she came the closest of any Democrat that year to win a statewide race.

She ran for governor in 2018 but dropped out after she couldn't mount a competitive campaign against the eventual nominee, Richard Cordray. Cordray ended up losing to Gov. Mike DeWine.

Since then, Pillich has held a variety of roles. For a few months in 2018, she co-chaired the Hamilton County Democratic Party. She resigned in November 2018 to head the National Association of Women Judges. She commuted weekly from Cincinnati to Washington, D.C. before leaving that post in the summer of 2019. She soon after announced her run for county commissioner.

The Republicans are fielding a former Mariemont councilmember to win back a seat on the three-member board of commissioners. Black, 40, has business experience in the financial technology and real estate industries.

Democrats have momentum in Hamilton County. In three years, the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners has gone from Republican-controlled to unanimous Democratic control after Commissioner Dennis Deters lost in 2016 and Commissioner Chris Monzel lost in 2018.